Has Russia found 14 MILLION-year-old bacteria sealed in an underground Antarctic lake?

• Russian scientists have discovered 'unknown' bacteria that has never been seen before
• Discovery made in the waters of the unique sub-glacial Lake Vostok

By MARK PRIGG

PUBLISHED: 06:59 EST, 8 March 2013 | UPDATED: 13:55 EST, 8 March 2013

Russian scientists believe they may have discovered new life forms sealed off for 14 million years in a subglacial lake deep under the Antarctic ice.

Scientists say the icy darkness of Lake Vostok, under 3,700 metres of ice, may provide a glimpse of the planet before the Ice Age and clues to life on other planets.

'After excluding all known contaminants, bacterial DNA was found that does not match any known species in world databases,' Sergei Bulat of the St Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute told a Russian news agency. 

Drilling into history: Russian researchers have reached Lake Vostok, and believe they may have found evidence of previously unseen bacterial life in water samples - although they need further research to confirm

The head of the drilling rig used by the research team to drill to the Vostok underground lake

'If it (the bacteria) had been found on Mars, then without a doubt we would have said there is life on Mars - but this is DNA from Earth,' he said. 

'We are calling this life form unidentified or unclassified.'

The Russian discovery came from analysing water that froze onto the end of the drill bit used to bore through to Vostok - the largest of a network of hundreds of lakes under the ice cap that acts like a blanket trapping the Earth's geothermal heat.

Bulat told RIA that scientists are waiting for more samples from the lake to confirm their discovery.

Because of the technology used to keep from polluting the pristine lake, Russia will only obtain clean water samples - uncontaminated by drilling fluid - for analysis later this year.

To answer concerns kerosene and anti-freeze from the borehole would seep into the lake, Russian engineers withdrew the drill to allow the water to percolate up into the borehole and freeze there, only returning this year to collect it.

But Bulat said the unknown microbes were found after separating out species of bacteria that are known to exist in the drilling fluid.

'When we tried to identify the DNA, it did not coincide with any known species. It's degree of similarity was less than 86 percent,' Bulat told RIA.

'That is practically zero when working with DNA. A level of 90 percent tells us the organism is unknown.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2290159/Has-Russia-new-form-life-underground-antarctic-lake.html#ixzz2N4QCZpa7